BOUND

PART 3

Next morning, Faris was sitting with his father on their dining room waiting for their breakfast and Afira. Faris instructed the maid to go to his room and inform Afira to come downstairs and have breakfast with them. Meanwhile Mr. Dawood was briefing him about the client Faris had a meeting tomorrow and advising him how he should prepare in order to close the second biggest deal of this quarter.

Mr. Dawood inquired if Afira had eaten anything in the dinner yesterday. Faris shook his head and Mr. Dawood became angry at Faris for failing to make her eat anything. At this, Faris called the maid near him who had just entered the dining room.

"Have you counted them?" he asked the maid to which she nodded. "How many left?"

"Eighteen, sir," maid answered. Faris then turned his head towards his father.

"I didn't completely fail to make her eat anything," he said with a smug face. "She ate two chocolate bars."

By that point, Afira also arrived. Mr. Dawood gave her a warm welcome and requested her to come and sit with them. Afira took a seat next to Mr. Dawood and opposite to Faris. Faris raised his eyes to peer Afira, she was wearing plain black kameez and a white dupatta was covering her head, her eyes were looking puffy and all makeup has been cleared from her face. In bridal look, Faris couldn't judge, but looking at her now in her modest appearance, he could tell that Afira was a simple and decent girl.

"Have you slept well last night?" Mr. Dawood asked and Afira nodded. "To make you feel better, I've invited Mr. Wani here to meet you, and he is on his way." The color on Afira's face came back to hear the news of her father coming here. Mr. Dawood called the cook from the kitchen to ask Afira what she wanted to have in breakfast.

"Meanwhile," Mr. Dawood shifted his eyes on Faris. "I think you should skip your gym session for today and give Afira a house tour after you two are done with the breakfast. Are you OK with this idea?"

Faris affirmed obediently and began to munch his oatmeal cereal his cook has prepared for him, while Afira began to eat her French-toast. After finishing up their meal, Faris accompanied Afira all over the house. Study, gym, pool, living room, garden, basement, roof, Faris took Afira everywhere and like a entertaining guide, he tried to give some kind of interesting anecdote associating with each place while Afira stayed quiet the entire time.

Finally, he brought her to his favorite place of the house where he used to spend a large chunk of his weekend: their backyard. As soon as they stepped in the lawn, two very adorable white Labradors sprinted towards them and leapt at Faris. Afira let out a shriek, retrieving couple of steps back out of fear. Faris was landing kisses all over their face and ardently rubbing their furs, but when he noticed that Afira was uncomfortable, he stood up and threw a Frisbee in the air so that the Labradors can run away from Afira to fetch it.

"You don't like dogs?" Faris inquired.

"I don't know," Afira remarked. It was the first time she had spoken to Faris directly. "I have never been this close to dogs before, let alone ones who were so majestically big. I always dread that they are going to bite me." Faris chuckled at her honest reply.

"Well, I am not sure about other dogs, but these two are not going to bite you. I've brought them here when they were only couple of days old, and since then I've worked really hard in their upbringing and make them affable."

They returned with Frisbee clenched in the mouth of one of the Labradors. Faris collected and then once again began to stroke their soft furs and snuggle them in his arms like if they were his babies. Looking how comfortable they were around Faris, Afira's nerve began to calm a bit.

"She is Zoe," he told Afira, grabbing one of the Labradors who was looking slightly more energetic and licking Faris all over his face. "And that other one is Dan. As you can see, among these two Zoe is the one who is more fond of me." He said and then shoved his hands inside Zoe's mouth until she choked and coughed up in annoyance. "See, they don't bite."